Day 20 – Three little things

Monday 28th September 2009

I couldn’t wait until I got my central line out as it wasn’t particularly comfortable sleeping upright. It wasn’t very pretty to look at too…

Had some more blood taken that morning so hopefully the results would show that the antibiotics were working.

Kermit came to see me this morning just as I was in the middle of getting dressed. Sister Clarke, the Ward Manager, who was accompanying him on his rounds made him wait outside my room while she helped me get decent. I asked him when I would be able to go home. He replied that there were three things:

· Andrew, the microbiologist, had to be confident that the antibiotics were working and that he was happy for me to take them orally.

· The leaking from my wound had to be completely dry.

· I had to be mobile and safe at home.

Two of the three things were out of my control. However the third, being mobile, I was able to do something about so was determined to work harder with my walking.

Kermit suggested that I come off the blood clotting injections as whilst they help clot the blood, they also make any wound oozing last longer. No more stabbing in the stomach – yippee !!!!

My hip wound was still weeping so Christa, the lovely German staff nurse, wheeled me, and the bed, into the dressing room. Although Kermit had given instructions that my theatre dressing had not to be changed, it had become quite saturated so he had allowed it to be replaced. She had a look at my wound and said it was doing fine and that there didn’t appear to be any infection. Christa then looked at the burn on my knee and thought it was taking too long to heal, so put some jell, similar to what I had on my pressure sore, on it to try and get rid of all the dead skin.

Because I didn’t have a hip joint my left leg was considerably shorter than my right leg so I was walking on the tips of my left toes. I was hoping that when the physio’s came today I had made some more progress with my walking. Lisa, one of the physios, had suggested I try some leg muscle strengthening exercises. I hate exercising, no matter how simple they are. However if I wanted to go home, I had to do them. It certainly paid off as I was able to walk further today and without any assistance. I was now allowed to walk to the loo with a nurse accompanying me, just for safety. It may not have seemed like much but it was a huge step for me. I was on the next run of the ladder home.

During the nurses afternoon handover (where the nurses who are just starting work are told what had been happening with the patients) which takes place at the nurses work station (which just happens to be next to my side room) I overheard them mention that my ‘count’ had gone down.

Natalie, a lovely second year nursing student, took my ‘obs’ and said that my blood pressure and temperature were slightly low. I explained that my blood pressure was always low and that the nurses were aware of this.

About 10 minutes later I was told that following the blood sample taken this morning, my cell count was 79 and it should be 80, and that I would need another blood transfusion. More blood was taken so they could do a cross matching.

I was told they had contacted the ICU to see if the central line could be used for the blood transfusion and was told it would be ok. However, as usual, there was a conflict between ICU and one of the doctors. Doctor Zara decided she didn’t want to now use the central line and put a line in my arm instead. She looked at my veins and even though they were shot to pieces, she was determined to put a line in.

Consequently I wasn’t able to walk as the line was restricting the movement in my hand, which was needed to hold onto the zimmer frame. I was not happy…..

Norma, one of the staff nurses, told me that the transfusion would take place as soon as possible as they were concerned that I was looking very pale and my blood pressure was getting lower.

Had to have my dressing changed again as it had been leaking quite a bit. Even though the wound didn’t look infected a swab was taken just in case there was an infection.

My mam came that afternoon and brought some sandwiches for me. I was so hungry I could have eaten them ten times over. As usual mam decided to read out loud what was on the menu that evening. Instantly I felt queasy. I asked her to stop but she kept on talking. In the end I had to yell at her to shut up.

Due to my wound leaking onto my clothing I didn’t have a clean nightshirt or t-shirt (it needed to be wide neck so it could go over my central line). I had to use one of the hospital theatre gowns. My mam wasn’t very happy about that so decided to go through all the nightshirts and t-shirts that were in my locker to see if she could find one. I kept telling her there wasn’t anything suitable in there but she just ignored me and kept on looking. She was now starting to annoy me. She found a nightshirt in a carrier bag and asked what that it was doing there.
“It’s for John to take home tonight so he can wash it and bring it in tomorrow night”.
“I can wash it”, she replied.
“It’s ok,” I said, “John has some washing to do tonight”.
“I said I can wash it”.
“John’s quite happy to do it”.
“I can wash it”.

This went on for ages. In the end I said she could take it as she was really irritating me and I was frightened I’d snap and say something nasty to her. I was so glad when she left as she was getting on my nerves big time…

Thankfully I was in a better mood with John when he came that evening. We chatted about what we were going to do when I eventually go home. The first thing on the list was a takeaway pizza and a glass of wine, if Andrew would allow it. Then it would be:

· A trip to the Wessington pub for lunch, preferably their Wiltshire ham, eggs and chips.

· A trip to the Chinese restaurant to make up for the meal I never had on my birthday.

· A trip to the Metro Centre and a possible visit to Pizza Hut.

I couldn’t wait !!!!